Department of Health News

This news item expired on 3/31/2013, so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.

Nurse-Family Partnership: Investing in Healthier Families

Each year in North Carolina, 21,000 children are born to first-time, low-income mothers. These mothers are at greatest risk of suffering health, education and economic disparities that perpetuate a vicious cycle of poverty. Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) is a nationally recognized, evidence-based nurse home visitation program that helps transform the lives of vulnerable mothers pregnant with their first child.

Buncombe County is one of 17 counties in the State that now operates a NFP program. Each mother served by NFP is partnered with a registered nurse early in her pregnancy and receives ongoing nurse home visits that continue through her child’s second birthday. In Buncombe County, over half of the caseload are women 19 years of age or younger, although NFP serves mothers of all ages.

Through ongoing consultations in the mother’s home, registered nurses work to:

Improve pregnancy outcomes

Improve child health and development

Increase the economic self-sufficiency of the family

NFP has proven to prevent preterm birth, low birth-weight infants, and child abuse and neglect. The RAND Corporation has independently estimated that the return for each dollar invested in NFP is up to $5.70.

In North Carolina, NFP has served 2,397 mothers, welcomed 1,573 babies and conducted 47,426 home visits. In Buncombe County, we have served a total of 225 families, welcomed 136 babies and conducted over 4,500 home visits since the program began here in October 2009.

AS A RESULT in North Carolina:

89% of babies were born full-term, and 89% were born at a healthy weight (at or above 5.5 lbs.).

72% of mothers enrolled in NFP in Buncombe County had no subsequent pregnancies at program completion (i.e., 28 percent faced a repeat pregnancy within 2.5 years of enrollment).

44% of mothers who entered the program without a high school diploma or GED have since earned one, and another 26% are working to obtain one.

AS A RESULT in Buncombe County the outcomes are much the same as the State:

89.7% of babies were born full term and 90.4% were born at a healthy weight

76% of moms enrolled in NFP had no subsequent pregnancies at program completion

66% of moms at 6 months postpartum are either back in school or working towards graduating either from high school, college, or obtaining a GED. This number increased while the women were in the program by almost 15%.

In addition, 83.6% of children in the program were breastfed at birth, 44.6% at 6 months and 25% were still breastfeeding at one year. These numbers are well above both state and national numbers, decreasing the likelihood of obesity in our children.

By 2 years of age, 100% of NFP children have been fully immunized for their age.

These are just a few outcomes that support the success of Nurse Family Partnership in North Carolina and particularly in Buncombe County. Please see the attached State Report and do not hesitate to contact Jennings Garry at 707-3069 for further information on Nurse Family Partnership.